had my engine apart to find out why the #2 cylinder is down on compression.. it looked perfect, talked to a buddy of mine, he thinks maybe a bent rod? wouldn't explain blowby though that could come from all the cylinders.. I'm thinking of going back to the 60mm turbo while I deal with this to have more air and better spool.. reduce the smoke a little.

I just hauled a HEAVY trailer home, still has OK power, though not what it should be.. 10% hill a mile long I was still doing 55 mph at the top, 1300 EGT's but I was backing out.. a bit better turbo mapping could have helped me there, boost was falling off too fast as I backed off the throttle

Other news, my first gen went to south dakota and back to pick up a trailer.. I had 4 cows with pneumonia, One calf that one the darwin award by getting stuck in a bush in the dumbest way possible. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting.. it's been a busy summer

I shipped my calves this weekend.. of course another #$%## injector piled up 40 miles into the trip and made the rest of it a bit of a misery... I kinda fixed it by just tromping on it.. had a moron in front of me dawdling along.. until there was a passing lane of course.. then he did like 70mph... No problem, bad injector, still have a weak cylinder, still did 85mph with a load of calves in the trailer, and one heck of a smoke cloud behind me... Mileage sure sucked.. only made about 300 miles on a full tank.. EGT's tended to be higher, and on some long hills there was some popping sound in the exhaust.. no doubt from a dribbling injector making some late fire.. I'll do another compression check on the truck when I put some old 5x12's I have into it and see how it runs.

Last week I was prepared to pull my engine and put my old spare in.. decided to do a compression check first since I had to pull the injectors anyhow.. Remember I put a .020" thicker head gasket it.. most of my cylinders were 410-420 PSI (down 20psi) and the #2 that I took apart came up to 400 (from 390) despite the thicker gasket, so I decided against pulling it.Since my injectors were acting up, I went and put my old 5x009's in... gonna be down on power for sure, they're less than half the size but it should burn clean at least.. I also maxed the injector pump since that pump wasn't all that balanced anyhow... I'll start it up and with the infrared temp gun try and see which exhaust runners are running hotter at idle and turn those down to at least get close... maybe someday I'll get a 6x thermocouple amp and have one in each cylinder runner.. I think that would really help diagnosis.

I'm also starting to really throw around the idea of at P pump 24V engine.. I can get a 24V engine minus injector pump for a couple hundred bucks if I pull it.. take the head and pistons, put some rings on it, toss it in a 12V block (I want the option of the mechanical lift pump) and have some fun.. Apparently the truck I just got is a 96 not a 97, so it's got the 180hp pump.. I was told the 160hp pump maxes out at 550 to the wheels.. I think I can do better than that though.

remember that 5x010's are half the size of 5x014's... being in california I guess it's doubly important to have it clean burning. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get genuine Bosch ones this time, costs about $750, but these failing injectors are driving me nuts, and especially when they take a cylinder with them

Well.. I was on holidays a while.. Spent too much money on toys.. though I got a lot of stuff for free as well (parts washer, coffee grinders.. not ordinary ones but 15hp coffee grinders that will be used for chicken feed).Picked up a quad cab with doors that'll go on the truck pictured above.. bought a little 5x10 utility trailer so I could haul everything home.

Most notable thing is I took the 215 hp pump out of that truck and brought it to BD to get it maxed and balanced.. should be 750cc/1000 hp capable when it's done.. I'll leave the stock DV's in for now, maybe put the 052's in later.. I'll see how far I can push these 5x009's before I talk to Seth Farrell about new ones

Goign to get my pump back next week.. Yippee!.. Cost a pretty penny considering it didn't need any parts.. 4k gsk install (since that was coming apart anyhow, I supplied the kit).. $500 USD

I should be good for a while though.. I think I might use the 1996 injectors, what are they, 5x010? 11?.. better than the 5x009's anyhow.

I'm hoping a freshly balanced pump will cure the engine of the idle lope it has and clean up the exhaust, i think the old pump had a cylinder or two that was firing harder than the others causing a lot of smoke and probably uneven EGT's.. turbo spool should be better too.

My last trip into town my oil pressure sender packed it in and spewed oil everywhere.. took a gallon of oil to get myself home, underside of the truck is FILTHY.

the 94 truck is getting the new injector pump tonight.. Yeeehaw!. Also found a NEW actuator for about $270 USD which will give me a completely new turbo.Bank account isn't all that happy, but I sure am.

I got my pump in.. lots of tuning to be done before I make a final verdict on how well spent that money was.

Couple notes though.. When I pulled the drain plug out of my old pump, the fuel left in it smelled of diesel, but the crankcase didn't.. so it had a small leak I guess.. I also bought a pop tester for nozzles.. not a great quality unit but it'll do the job for $90... So I tested all the nozzles I have that aren't installed in a vehicle.. Looks like the last set (5x014s) I pulled out because one failed.. well, it was the #2 cylinder that died AGAIN... 3 of the 5 holes were plugged solid.I'm going to go out on a limb and say the #2 barrel in the injector pump is chewing itself up and spitting garbage down the line and the injector is dying because of it.Then I tested the Marine 370's I had, they dribble like MAD, they don't pop cleanly at all!

Other problems I had was my turbo was acting up, I thought it was the actuator dying... When I'd start it cold it would run WAAAY too closed, it would feel like it was in engine brake mode when it was commanded to position 800 or less.Took that apart, found out that the sliders for the vanes were carboned up and were nearly impossible to move when close to the wide open position, so the actuator would mistakenly think it was wide open when it wasn't, thus being more closed than it thought it was.I had a new CHRA so I just tossed that in with a known good used actuator, I'll fiddle with it later. I also bought a brand new actuator from someone that didn't need it for $250..

I'm debating what size injectors nozzles I should get now.. I have 5x012 155* SAC's, 5x014 145* VCO.. Kinda thinking of getting some 5x016 VCO's.. Maybe try some 6x013's too but they only come in SAC.. at least I haven't found a place that has them in VCO

Other than that, it's calving season here again!.. got two bouncing little babies